My review of "Salvation Gambit" by Emily Skrutskie:

The word "romp" gets thrown around a lot in book reviews, but if there was ever a book that deserved that label, this is it. A bit Ocean's 11, a bit Expanse. Our main character, Murdock, is a young hacker/aspiring con artist, captured along with her crew by local authorities and turned over to the Justice, an ancient ship built by a long-fallen empire, whose AI styles itself the redeeming deity of all the "sinners" it takes aboard. From pickpockets to moon-eaters, everyone gets a life sentence, and that means one of three options: become a raider, preying on "ingest" (the newbies); become a settler, trying to carve out a space for regular human activities like farming, having families, and putting on music festivals; or become an agent of the Justice, essentially, the jail wardens of this massive spacebound Alcatraz. Murdock and her wannabe Robin Hood friends reject all three options, of course, but the how of it is quite entertaining. Why does everyone carry swords? I assume it has something to do with the dangers of projectile weapons aboard spaceships, but I can't recall if that was ever spelled out. Anyway, the characterization is great. The action sequences are lots of fun, though sometimes I felt they could be compressed somewhat. I also wished there was more time spent exploring the various settlements and attempts at recreating human society inside a prison society. I definitely enjoyed it, so much so that I'll be checking out more of Emily Skrutskie's books.

4/5 stars

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The first book I read this year: Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri 🌸 🗡️ Very much the middle book of a trilogy, so Malini and Priya start the book separated and things get dark, but there's great story along the way. https://www.librarything.com/work/26977261/

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